The present invention relates to milling machines that are used in road surface repairs. Milling machines are typically utilized to remove a layer or layers of old or defective road surface in preparation for resurfacing. Resurfacing an existing road surface with such defects may result in a perpetuation of prior existing conditions, especially if the road surface is exposed to heavy and/or continuous traffic which often requires the road to be resurfaced again within a short period of time. Milling may also provide a renewable source of aggregate such as recycled asphalt that may be used to resurface milled surfaces.
Many milling machines direct milled road fragments towards a conveyer which takes the fragments off the road, however, a significant amount of debris, aggregate, and fragments remain on the milled surface. When using asphalt or other pavement material to resurface a road, the milled surface must be substantially clean of any residue material before a new layer of asphalt can be deposited. Failure to clear the milled surface of such material may result in poor bonding between the new asphalt and the milled surface. Typically a sweeper will come along after the milling machine to remove of the debris, but often this is inefficient and uneconomical. Moreover, it is important for the milling machine to be able to follow and/or track the road surface and its contours being milled while both travelling straight and making curves.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,438,364, issued to Boehme et al. on Oct. 21, 2008 (“the '364 patent”), describes a scraper blade for a milling construction machine to help scrape milled material from behind a milling drum in order to yield a clean milled surface. The scrapper blade includes a blade that trails behind the milling drum, and is adjustable via a piston cylinder unit. The scrapper blade may be secured in a lowered position with a guide in the rear of the milling construction machine. The scraper blade and piston cylinder unit of the '364 patent may not provide sufficient degrees of freedom of movement, and thus, may introduce problematic bending forces on the piston cylinder unit. The moldboard support structure of the present disclosure may solve one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art. The scope of the current disclosure, however, is defined by the attached claims, and not by the ability to solve any specific problem.